Our data privacy policy

Data protection - Privacy notices

The Chartered Trading Standard Institute group of companies (CTSI) are notified and registered with The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under data protection legislation as a Data Controller.

CTSI will use personal data supplied solely for the purpose of providing the services, products and consumer advice services for which the information is given, and in fulfilling our obligations for supplying these and complying with our Charter, Bye-Laws and financial and regulatory requirements.

CTSI processes personal data in compliance with data protection legislation. Your information will only be retained and shared within the CTSI companies, suppliers, regulatory and other agencies as appropriate to meeting our obligations. We do not sell your data, and we store it safely and securely. We do not transfer your data to other countries unless in compliance with UK data protection legislation.

Data subject rights

The General Data Protection Regulation provides the following rights for individuals in respect of the processing of their personal data.

1. The right to be informed

Individuals have the right to be informed about the collection and use of their personal data.

2. The right of access

You can request to be provided with details of your personal data we hold, through raising a Subject Access Request.

3. The right to rectification

You can have inaccurate personal data rectified, or completed if it is incomplete.

4. The right to erasure

You can request (in certain circumstances) to have your personal data erased. The right to erasure is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’.

5. The right to restrict processing

You have the right (in certain circumstances) to request the restriction or suppression of your personal data.

When processing is restricted, the company can still store your personal data, but not use it.

6. The right to data portability (to other service providers)

Allows you to obtain and reuse your own personal data for your own purposes across different services.

It allows you to be provided with your data and move, copy or transfer personal data from one IT environment to another. It can only be transferred where we are the Data Controller and where it is for use by another Data Controller. It will be made available in a commonly used electronic format.

7. The right to object

You have the right (in certain circumstances) to object to the processing of your personal data based on your particular situation.

Individuals have the absolute right to object their data being used for direct marketing.

8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

We do not undertake any automated decision-making based on the processing of personal data.

Subject access request

The right of access to your personal data is made through a Subject Access Request. This will normally be responded to within one month of the identity of the data subject which the request is for being confirmed.

To make a Subject Access Request please contact us electronically or in writing. If you can identify that this is a Subject Access Request this will enable us to more easily respond to your request. These should be sent to:

Email to: dataprotection@tsi.org.uk. Please mark as Subject Access Request or SAR.

Post to: Data Protection, CTSI, 1, Sylvan Court, Sylvan Way, Southfields Business Park, Basildon, Essex, SS15 6TH.

Make changes to your data we process

To make changes to your personal data we hold, including to update your information, restrict processing or delete your information, contact us electronically or in writing. Details of your request should be should be sent to:

Email to: dataprotection@tsi.org.uk.

Post to: Data Protection, CTSI, 1, Sylvan Court, Sylvan Way, Southfields Business Park, Basildon, Essex, SS15 6TH.

Data protection policy

A copy of Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s Data Protection Policy is available upon request. To request a copy, contact us either electronically or in writing, confirming how you want us to send it to you along with your contact details.

Email to: dataprotection@tsi.org.uk. Requesting a copy of our Data Protection Policy,

Post to: Data Protection, CTSI, 1, Sylvan Court, Sylvan Way, Southfields Business Park, Basildon, Essex, SS15 6TH.

Further information on data protection

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

For more details on data protection related legislations including your rights or reporting a concern or complaint about information rights and data protection, visit their website at https://ico.org.uk/.

Our website privacy policy

CTSI does not collect personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information to us. You are free to browse this website anonymously.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file that a website transfers to your device that allows our server to remember specific information about your usage session. While visiting our website, you may encounter pages that employ cookies to:

make it easier to use dynamic site features
measure how many visitors are using our services so they can be made easier to use and to ensure there's enough capacity to ensure they are responsive
collect data to help us understand how our services are used so we can improve them

You can set your browser to disable cookies or prompt you before a cookie is accepted. If you do not want to receive cookies, you will still be able to use our website.

Our website uses Google Analytics which deploys the following cookies to your device:

The _ga cookie is used to distinguish individual users and is stored for up to 2 years.
The _gid cookie is also used to distinguish users, but it expires after 24 hours.
The _gat cookie is used to limit the rate of requests made to servers and expires after 1 minute.

YouTube

We embed videos from our official YouTube channel. This may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player. To find out more please visit YouTube’s embedding videos information page.

Personally provided information

If you choose to provide us with personal information by sending an email, or by filling out a form with your personal information and submitting it through our website, we use that information to respond to your enquiry and to help us provide you with information or material that you request. If provided, personally identifiable information is maintained in a database that is secure within CTSI. Only employees and contractors of CTSI will have access to your volunteered information. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party, unless required to by law.

Links to other sites

We provide links to other Internet sites. Once you leave our site and visit another site, you are subject to the terms and privacy policy of the new site.

Last reviewed 10 April 2026